I love the idea of Play to Decide. RPGs have always offered such immersive experiences that could be used in a range of ways to support relationship building or problem solving in the real world. In my own gaming evolution from traditional fantasy/sci-fi gaming into the horror and pulp gaming of 1920s/1930s and ultimately to GURPS – a system where you can play anything, in any time period – I see systems that allow for role-play all types of government, organizational or community scenarios. Role-playing games could offer a framework that is far more engaging and worthwhile to participants than your more standard scenario-planning models. So, I am interested to see where Matt takes this.

Matt Cooperrider, however, is a humble fellow and acknowledges that the idea is very new and the depth of his knowledge still shallow. He is looking for some help, advice and expertise. He has created the Play to Decide blog to gather stories, ideas and inspiration that will help to develop and explore what this type of RPG might look like and how it could work. Continue Reading “Can RPGs Help Organizations Make Better Decisions?” »

One of the most enjoyable games I’ve been a part of in recent times has been an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) being run by an innovative teacher from Australia. We usually think of ARGs as large scale, requiring lots of resources and being part of a marketing campaign for a new movie – or as some funky, alternative techy game that the cool kids play. But it doesn’t have to be.

Jess McCulloch teaches Mandarin in Australian schools and she sent me a tweet asking if my boys (aged 7 and 9 years) might be interested in a game that teaches them about how languages are structured. Of course I said yes. All she needed to begin was our home address and the boys’ names.

The next thing that happened… we received a letter in the mail addressed to my kids. They didn’t recognize the handwriting and they curiously opened it. What they found was an A4 sheet of paper with a Chinese Character on it, and a URL. They were puzzled. My eldest suggested we type the URL into the computer and when we did we were opened up to a world of secret agents, lessons on language and mission after mission that would help them solve the mystery of the character on their piece of paper.

Jess has created an an ARG targeting younger school children called “The Blackline Mystery.” Through email and live Skype sessions with her “virtual agents” she sets missions that they must complete online. She uses video and letters in the mail to give the game a stronger sense of reality and in doing so has my children hooked. They have set up their own agent email and are spending time working their way through missions to gain the next clues about the mysterious character they received in the post. This beats homework hands down – and I’m happy for them to work on this rather than homework because they are engaged and willing participants in a game, developing their digital media literacy skills, their problem solving skills and improving their literacy, their numeracy and understanding things about how languages develop. What Jess demonstrates is that an ARG doesn’t need a huge budget. With a good plot, some free web-based tools and the willingness to invest some time, teachers and parents can create playful and immersive environments for their children to learn in.

I’ve wanted to be part of an ARG since I went to an event on transmedia in Melbourne and heard Steve Peters, a Senior Designer at Fourth Wall Studios talking about an ARG he played that involved going out to a local park and looking for something which was buried. It was the afternoon and raining and he invited his teenage daughter to go with him to look for something in the park. They drove there, wandered around getting wet in the rain and eventually – after a few tries – dug up a canister. In the car, drying themselves off, Steve’s daughter opened the canister to find a digital camera with photos on it (the next clue in the ARG). She said to her Dad, “I feel like I’m in a movie.” Continue Reading “Alternate Reality Gaming for Kids” »